Cyclohexanone is an important material in the chemical industry and is widely used in, for example, production of phenolic resins, bisphenol A, ε-caprolactam, adipic acid, and plasticizers. One method for making cyclohexanone is by hydrogenating phenol.
Currently, a common route for the production of phenol is the Hock process. This is a three-step process in which the first step involves alkylation of benzene with propylene to produce cumene, followed by oxidation of cumene to the corresponding hydroperoxide, and then cleavage of the hydroperoxide to produce equimolar amounts of phenol and acetone. The separated phenol product can then be converted to cyclohexanone by a step of hydrogenation.
It is known from, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 6,037,513, that cyclohexylbenzene can be produced by contacting benzene with hydrogen in the presence of a bifunctional catalyst comprising a molecular sieve of the MCM-22 type and at least one hydrogenation metal selected from palladium, ruthenium, nickel, cobalt, and mixtures thereof. This reference also discloses that the resultant cyclohexylbenzene can be oxidized to the corresponding hydroperoxide, which can then be cleaved to produce a cleavage mixture of phenol and cyclohexanone, which, in turn, can be separated to obtain pure, substantially equimolar phenol and cyclohexanone products. This cyclohexylbenzene-based process for co-producing phenol and cyclohexanone can be highly efficient in making these two important industrial materials. Given the higher commercial value of cyclohexanone than phenol, it is highly desirable that in this process more cyclohexanone than phenol be produced. While this can be achieved by subsequently hydrogenating the pure phenol product produced in this process to covert a part or all of the phenol to cyclohexanone, a more economical process and system would be highly desirable.
One solution to making more cyclohexanone than phenol from the above cyclohexylbenzene-based process is to hydrogenate a mixture containing phenol and cyclohexanone obtained from the cleavage mixture to convert at least a portion of the phenol contained therein to cyclohexanone. In this process, multiple distillation columns are required, each of which may consume a large amount of energy while operating under vacuum. Therefore, the design and operation of such a system with a high efficiency is not without challenge.
As such, there is a need for an improved process system for making cyclohexanone from a mixture containing phenol, cyclohexanone and cyclohexylbenzene.
The present invention satisfies this and other needs.